torta

Forms

torta f (plural tortas)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Late Latin torta (“round loaf, cake”), well documented in the Vulgate and other writings of Saint Jerome; the origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[2][3] The DLE gives it as of unknown origin.^[4]

The same word is Portuguese torta, Galician torta, Catalan torta, Occitan torta, French tourte, Italian torta and Romanian turtă; modern Catalan and most of Occitan have replaced it by coca.^[5][2] The Romance forms point to a Latin closed /o/ or /u/, as the Romanian and Sardinian forms suggest, which rules out the etymology from torta (“twisted”), the participle of torqueō (“to twist”), repeated since Diez;^[5] Meyer-Lübke, Pușcariu and Bloch therefore left the origin unknown.^[2][5] Wiktionary links it to turta, first attested in the Vindolanda tablets, and notes that the participle gave Spanish tuerta.^[1] The DHLF and Bénaben still derive it from the participle.^[6][7]

Corominas proposes that Vulgar Latin took it from Ancient Greek τορτίδιον (tortídion), a contraction of the article with ἀρτίδιον (artídion, “small loaf”), the diminutive of ἄρτος (ártos, “bread, a loaf”); French tarte, the source of Spanish tarta, would come from the plural with the article.^[2][3] He rejects a source in an Andalusian Arabic word for dough kneaded like a cake, which he takes rather to be a borrowing from Romance.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Abraham has Sarah knead three measures of flour, e fizo tortas “and she made cakes”.^[8][9] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a stone found de forma redonda & llana; assi como torta “round and flat, like a cake”.^[8][10]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century charters of the abbey of Irache in Navarre, torta names a payment in kind owed by tenants.^[8] The 13th-century Libro de los caballos gives it to a disease of horses, “because it grows like a loaf”, and glossaries of about 1400 use it to translate Latin collyrida and placentula.^[2] Covarrubias describes it as flat bread that does not rise, like the unleavened bread of the Jews, and derives it from Latin torquendo or torrendo.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as round dough mixed with oil, eggs or must and baked slowly, and records the familiar phrase tortas y pan pintado.^[12]

In the Americas the word was soon applied to maize and cassava breads: in 1546 Fernández de Oviedo mentions the fine maize tortas of New Spain.^[13][14] In much of South America it now means a large cake, and in Mexico a sandwich made with a split roll.^[15][4] The Academy's 1884 edition added two printers' senses, and colloquial Spanish uses it for a slap in the face, a crash and drunkenness.^[16][4] In the Canaries and Peru it was the mud plaster of roofs and walls, and in Puerto Rico it is a concrete slab.^[17][18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has fizo tortas.^[8][9]
• 1247 – a charter of Irache in Navarre names a payment por peita e por torta.^[8]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone to a torta.^[8]
• 13th century – the Libro de los caballos uses it for a disease of horses.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin peponus and placenta.^[20]
• 1505 – in Agaete, Gran Canaria, tortas of mud are laid on the houses.^[17]
• 1546 – the first record from the Americas: the maize tortas of New Spain.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes it as flat unleavened bread.^[11]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the printers' senses.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A round, flat cake of flour and other ingredients, cooked slowly.^[4][1]
2. Any mass pressed into the shape of such a cake.^[4]
3. (colloquial) A slap in the face: Como sigas así, te vas a llevar una torta.^[4][1]
4. (colloquial) A knock, fall or crash.^[4]
5. (colloquial) drunkenness.^[4][1]
6. (printing) A packet of type as it comes from the foundry; a page of type kept for distribution.^[4]
7. (South America) A large cake, tarta.^[4][15][1]
8. (Mexico) A sandwich made with a roll split lengthways and filled.^[4][15][1]
9. (Peru, vulgar) Sexual relations between women.^[4]

Word family

• tortada
• tortazo
• tortero
• tortilla
• tortita
• tortear
• tortera
• zampatortas

Related words

• tarta
• French tourte
• Italian torta

Usage notes

The proverb A falta de pan, buenas son tortas means that one must make do with what there is.^[1][21] The Spanish Wiktionary treats torta “lesbian” as a clipping of tortillera.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 561
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. torta
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8802
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. torta
8. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. torta
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. torta
10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. torta
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1340
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 307
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. torta
14. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. torta
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. torta
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1037
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. torta
18. ^ Arona, Juan de [Pedro Paz Soldán y Unanue] (1883), Diccionario de peruanismos, Lima: J. Francisco Solís, p. 484
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. torta
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 423
21. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 512
22. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org